Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
The anticipated day has come. John Dehlin has been formally cut off from the LDS church. John has been an ambitious voice and organizer for those who have deep Mormon questions. He has provided a platform for many to share their stories and find people with common concerns and common goals. For some he has shown them how to save their faith. For others he has shown them ways to examine their faith. For many he has become an important part of their life narrative, likely without designing to do so.
Seeing John cut off from the church hurts. Their are lots of opinions and questions being aired. He is being examined and cross-examined again and again. Whether you have grown to love John or not, he is an important and valuable figure in modern Mormon discourse for many and his formal excommunication carries painful weight for those who value his contributions. The discipline brings up anxiety, frustration, anger, confusion, and a variety of other emotions. In this podcast our panel of Joanna Brooks, Dan Wotherspoon, Natasha Parker, and Jennifer Finnlayson-Fife offer some constructive insights and long term perspective that we can use in moving forward in our faith community after this blow.
A Poem for My Brothers and Sisters
by Joanna Brooks
Last night I dreamed I stood
at the edge of the parade route,
my friend Claire at my side,
a shade over our heads,
a ridge of red sandstone mountains against the far horizon.
Then they came in the noonday sun
Our people, so fierce, so tender, so terrible
The men carrying books translated out of air, out of hats, out of hunger,
Eyes straight ahead, unafraid of looking foolish to the world
if it meant they could beat down death.
The women too
Pioneer skirts across the backs of horses
Long guns at their sides
Priestesses they were
Tall, soft spoken, square shouldered
Priestesses of a kind this world has never seen
I tried to tell Claire how proud I was to see them
From the time I was a kid
The way my heart would throw itself against my bones saying
True, true, true
Or was it feeling, feeling, feeling?
I watched it all pass in front of me, trying to find the words,
and just before I woke the words came:
It is worthy of being loved;
It is worthy of being grieved.
The only reason I write is because the words come
The only reason they come is for you
The words came in my dream last night to tell you
That all that we have given to it:
Our dead relatives and our living;
Our black mornings bent over scriptures
mapping a world that never existed;
The homely white clothing we stepped into
to make promises, with words, with hands, with bodies;
How hard we worked to keep them;
How we punished ourselves when we could not.
The hours, the hours, the hours—
How do you begin to count them?
All of it, the grandeur and the failure,
Yours and mine, and that of our people:
It is worthy of being loved
It is worthy of being grieved
You are worthy of being loved
You are worthy of being grieved
You are worthy.
The past few days has been a hard time for me personally. I feel like I have been punched in the gut with the news of Johns excommunication. I am an active member of the church who has doubts about the very three things sited in president Kings letter to John. The fact that there is a white bearded glorified man sitting on a planet nearest to the star called Kolob has a very low probability (in my opinion). I have questions regarding the authenticity of the Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham. I question how exactly the atonement works and do not have evidence of a literal resurrection. I can not in good conscience place my religion in a position that lowers others religion by saying my church is the only true church. I hope their is a God. I hope there is a literal resurrection and I would love for the Book of Mormon to be an authentic historical document. I love the church. It has played and continues to play an important part in my life. I teach a Sunday school class each week. I strive to do my home teaching each month. I pay a full tithe. I exercise faith. I keep a much lower profile than John. Today there was a very clear message sent that my church does not want people like me. At least that is how it feels. I am not angry with the church or any one in it. I am not angry with John Dehlin. I am hurt. I am doing the best I can to deal with it. I am trying to be brave, just by posting this here. Pray for me. I am glad I found this pod cast today. Thanks.
Great podcast. So much to still process. Thank you for the courage to reach out. Kinglamoni – You have my prayers. I share the pain.